The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1887-06-09
Gorse gptes.


There is another strain. Of blood
which for a long time was thought to
be a valuable factor in the production
of the flying t%rotter, and that is the
blood of the thoroughbred. Some Of
the opponents of this theory have gone
SO far as to insist that the proper way
to produce trotters is by the union of
a strictly thoroughbred mare with a
horse trotting bred for not more than
two generations. l believe Gov.
Stanford, the millionaire California
politician, is the only breeder who
now subscribes to this theory to so
great an extent. The others who held
it are dead, converted or in the poor
house. The writer confesses frankly
that when he began to study the
science of breeding, he was a subscriber
to the theory in its fullest extent, and
as he had never studied the matter, he
then knew all about it, but when he
found only fifteen strictly half-bred
horses with records below 2.3O, and
when out of a list of 1902 horses
which have sired $50 performers, he
could find only one thoroughbred,
Exchequer, with two performers to his
credit, and only twenty-eight out of
thoroughbred dams, and the two great
est of these, Mambrino Patchen, Ed
ward Everett at least doubtful, he saw
that there was something wrong some
where. He still believes that a dash
of thoroughbred blood such as that Of
Trustee or Bonnie Scotland, which has
proven it's capacity to mix kindly with
that of the trotter is Of advantage, but
he wants it further back. At present
he is inclined to believe that the second
or third generation is the best place
for it, for the reason that Handle
tonian, Norwood, Wedgewood, Wood
ford Mambrino, Mambrino Patch
en-, Electioneer, possibly Almont,
Alcantara and Alcyone, Volunteer
and Sentinel, all celebrated as sires
and Maud S, Jay-Eye-See, Antiero and
Antevolo, Lady Thorn and Lucy (pos-
sibly) celebrated as trotters were bred
that way, but it is very certain that as
the science of breeding il more learned,
the place for thoroughbred blood in
the trotter will be further and further
removed until it is entirely eliminated,
and even now a good trotting o rpacing
strain is worth more than the best
thoroughbred strain anywhere in a
pedigree. This opinion is based on
the fact that the three best sons of
Observation-Disclosures Abdallah
and Geo. Wilkes-have practically no
thoroughbred blood except what comes
through him, that the two best sons
of Alexanders Abdallah-Almont and
Belmont-have, one no other strain of
thoroughbred blood, and the other has
it not closer than the third generation.
That his greatest daughter, Gold
smiths Maid, the greatest campaigner
the world has ever seen, had none ex-
,cept another, Messenger, through
Abdallah that Harry Wilkes, the
greatest performer, and Red Wilkes,
the greatest sire that have come from
the loins of the mighty Geo. Wilkes,
have none except what he gives them,
and that of the wonderful trio Jay
Eye-See, Phallas and Director that
made Dictator famous. Phallas and
Dictator had no outside strain of
thorough blood, and in Jay-Eye-See
it was controlled by the intermixture
of the PAGER whose capacity for con-
trolling the blood has already been
adverted to, and the same is true of
Maud S.
It would seem then that, while the
blood of the thoroughbred is the base
rock on which rests the science of
breeding the t~rotter, that that blood
has done all of good that it can do,
and that the light harness horse of
the future will be produced in the
highest excellence by judicious inter
breeding Of the present trotting strains.
To argue by illustration, by long and
careful selection, the pointer has been
evolved from the hound, just as the
trotter has been evolved from the
runner, now a man having a fine strain
of pointers who should go to the
Quorn kennels after fresh blood would
very soon find himself in an insane
asylum, Yet having from the runner
evolved the t%rotter, we are asked to
go back to the blood which has been
bred and trained to run and do nothing
but run for generations, to get new
blood with which to intensity tho